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Seeing. Creating. Being.

One of the greatest things my career as a photographer has given me is the gift of paying attention.

I’ve had the good fortune of being a professional photographer the whole of my adult life. From my NYC based studio I’ve shot food, still life and beauty for a wide range of companies across all industries—editorial, advertising, corporate and fine art. It’s been endlessly creative, fun, challenging and rewarding. I’m so grateful for all the creative freedom and the opportunity to collaborate with so many incredibly talented people along the way. You can see my work at elizabethwattstudio.com.

I’ve also hugely enjoyed teaching photography and creativity, most notably as an adjunct professor at The Newhouse School at Syracuse University, as well as running creativity seminars at various workshop and corporate settings around the country. Since completing executive coaching certification through New York University School of Leadership and Human Capital Management, I also help people leverage the creative mindset in the service of positive change.

I’ve always been preoccupied with the concept of vision. It’s a word that gets tossed around a lot, especially in times like these where we’re all having to make big changes reinventing ourselves and the world we live in. As a professional photographer and educator, of course ‘vision’ has always played a huge part in my work life. For some time I‘ve been pondering the term in a much broader sense— How does the quality of our ‘seeing’ relate to the day-to-day effort of living our lives? How does it affect to our ability to be present, awake and alive—to evolve and to navigate change? How do we see clearly, how do we keep our eyes fresh?

The seed for this venture was perhaps planted many years ago by my daughter, now an amazing image maker in her own right, when she was around 7 years old. She asked me the seemingly simple question: “Mom; How do you see?” I’ve been exploring that question ever since.

Three years ago I relocated to San Miguel De Allende, Mexico, where I was simply drawn to the beauty, which, in a very deep down sense, abounds. It’s also brought me back to my roots as a photographer, where simply walking around with my camera—tuning in rather than tuning out with fresh eyes—is my greatest joy still.

Mission

“Each of us is responsible for how we see, and how we see determines what we see. Seeing is not merely a physical act: the heart of vision is shaped by the soul. When the soul is alive to beauty then we begin to see life in a fresh and vital way. The old habits of seeing are broken and new possibilities open up to us.”

—John O’Donahue

The mission of SCB is to open people’s eyes, literally.

Through this blog and my workshops I hope to offer people a fresh way of seeing and engaging with the world around them. With the ubiquitous presence of our handheld devices, the ever expanding mindfulness revolution, and our ever shifting daily reality, I hope to be a curator of fresh ideas around paying attention in new ways—Using our cameras and iphones to tune in, rather than tune out.

Workshops

SCB workshops are an expression of this. By educating our Seeing, not only do we hone our photographic vision; we bring a new level of mindfulness, engaged presence and heightened awareness into our day-to-day lives. We feel more awake and alive, more creative and intuitive, and less stressed.

With the beautiful city of San Miguel de Allende as a backdrop, our intention is to create an experience with the workshops that will give people the feelings of relaxation, refreshment, connection, luxury, adventure, personal evolution, creative expression, personal attention.

And as value added, by way of helping others see clearly, 15% of every workshop fee gets donated to Visionspring, an organization committed to providing eyeglasses to those in need in the developing world. That’s 30 pairs of eyeglasses, thanks to you.

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